cover image No One Saw My Pain: Why Teens Kill Themselves

No One Saw My Pain: Why Teens Kill Themselves

Barry D. Garfinkel. W. W. Norton & Company, $23 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-393-03583-4

The responses of eight families who have lost a child to suicide are examined here in case studies by Slaby, a New York psychiatrist specializing in depression and crisis intervention, and freelance writer Garfinkel, whose specialty is advocacy issues. Although the profiles of the distraught teens and their families are varied, they share one important feature: clues to the adolescents' behavior were almost always overlooked or not taken seriously. In his samples of counseling sessions, Slaby shares clinical experiences that have led to the formulation of practical strategies for use by parents and other interventionists. This treatment of a complex subject considers the differing perceptions of life events that may trigger suicidal thoughts in teens, especially in those who are depressed. The book is a call to give suicidal teens the attention--familial and medical--they so desperately need. (May)